Tag: barclays

The bank from the United Kingdom let it slip that the mobile payments service will be available in March.

U.K. bank, Barclays, has accidentally let it slip that Apple Pay is not just headed to its customers but that it is known exactly when it will be arriving and, according to the large financial institution, that will be in March.

The bank been the only major financial institution in the U.K. that hasn’t supported Apple’s mobile payments.

Customers at Barclays were the only ones with accounts at a large bank in the country that didn’t have the NFC technology based mobile payments from Apple Pay available to them. The service first became available last year in July, but the bank chose not to support those contactless payments for its iPhone carrying customers. However, the bank has now inadvertently provided confirmation that it will be arriving in March.

It was the CEO who accidentally let the release date of Apple Pay slip, when replying to an impatient customer’s email.

Ashok Vaswani, the CEO of Barclays, replied to an impatient customer’s email on January 12, giving confirmation that it would become possible to use an iPhone to complete mobile payments transactions within “60 to 75 days” of that time. That slip was all it took to provide a solid idea of when Apple’s mobile wallet would become available to customers of the bank as that is the only wallet app that is supported by the iPhone.

If Vaswani’s range of dates is accurate, it will mean that the iPhone’s mobile wallet will become available to Barclays customers at some point between March 13 and March 28. Still, despite the slip, the bank has yet to actually issue an official confirmation of the dates.

This will have Barclays joining Lloyds, Halifax, and every other large bank in the United Kingdom in offering Apple Pay to iPhone using customers. The reason for the delay in supporting the mobile wallet has not been offered by the bank. That said, it has been implied that there has been a disagreement between Apple and the bank with regards to the terms of supporting the service.

Report highlights the growing power of mobile payments

The popularity of mobile payments is growing in the United Kingdom and the United States. Citigroup and the Imperial College of London have released a new report shows that consumers in many countries are beginning to favor mobile payments when they shop digitally. This is particularly true in the U.S. and the UK, as more consumers are beginning to use their mobile devices to purchase products online. As such, they are becoming increasingly reliant on new payment services that allow them to make purchases online and in physical stores.

Consumer attitudes are affecting the adoption of new payment services

While more consumers have been opting to use their mobile devices to make payments, adoption of mobile commerce has been slow in 2015 overall. Consumer attitudes kept many people from making use of mobile payments services and these attitudes were swayed by security concerns. Many believe that their personal information is at risk when they use new payment platforms, which leads them to avoid mobile payments altogether. the report also suggests that there is a culture barrier preventing the widespread adoption of mobile payments.

UK banks are finding success with their own payment platforms

Banks in the United Kingdom have reported a surge in the adoption of new mobile payments service over the past few years. Barclays has its own mobile platform, called Pingit, which now accounts for 1 million transactions as of January of this year. This is an increase over the 100,000 transactions it had been responsible for only one year ago. Payment services in the U.S. have seen similar growth, especially due to the availability of new services like Apple Pay and Android Pay.

Consumers want more security from their mobile payments services

The mobile payments sector is still considered quite young. As such, there is room for growth in its various aspects. For consumers, security remains one of the most important priorities. If services cannot protect their financial information, consumers are unlikely to make use of them. These consumers also want more value added to the mobile payments services they are interested in. This may be accomplished through stronger support for loyalty programs.